Higher EU Futures Help Contain Losses

Regional equities are down across the board, although we are away from worst levels for a number of indices. This largely owes to higher EU and US equity futures. EU futures are ~2% higher at his stage, thanks to Credit Suisse efforts to boost its liquidity outlook (including a CHF50bn loan from the SNB). US futures are around +0.40% for both eminis and Nasdaq futures at this stage.

• The HSI is down roughly 1.5%, but we were down by more than 2% at one stage. Onshore shares are off by close to 0.70% for the CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite.
• The Topix is off by ~1.30% in Japan, with the underlying bank index down over 3.6%, reversing all of yesterday's 3.3% bounce.
• The Kospi is down slightly, with offshore selling -$305.8mn of local shares. The Taiex is down close to 1%.
• Indian shares are trying to firm. The Nifty was weaker at the open and is 10% below Dec peaks, which puts the index in a technical correction. The Philippines index saw the same fate, with the main index off by 2% at this stage.
• NZ shares rose 0.70%, perhaps on hopes the RBNZ tightening cycle is getting closer tot he end following today's weaker than expected Q4 GDP contraction. The ASX 200 fell by nearly 1.5%, despite robust jobs data for Feb.